THE SENSUAL WORLD

Kate Bush sixth album The Sensual World is her artistic demise. Her previous album Hounds of Love showed an artist that was still willing to experiment and take chances but here on The Sensual World It´s like she has lost the spark or her creative mojo if you will. Calling this cold album The Sensual World is very misleading as it is anything but sensual at least to me.

The music is very trivial only a few songs stand out. This is a very generic album. The title track starts the album and it´s Worth a listen, it´s an ok start to the album, even though I don´t like the celtic influence much. The Fog is the most emotional song here and probably the only really good one too. Rocket´s Tail shows a bit of experimenting, but too little too late. This Woman´s Work is a piano driven song with hints to the past. Unfortunately it´s only hints. I can´t say that I like any of the other songs very much. There are a few parts here and there but not whole songs I like.

The musicianship is as always outstanding, but Kate Bush seems tired and her beautiful voice isn´t as intriguing as it used to be.

The Production is terrible. It´s not that I don´t like eighties productions but this one sounds very bad to me. The snare drum sound is really horrible and the sound on Kate´s vocals makes it sound cold and inaccessible. The keyboard and piano sound is also very bad. This is the kind of late eighties and early nineties sound that I really hate.

Kate Bush is my favorite femate artist, and I´m so sorry I have to be this harsh, but I don´t enjoy The Sensual World. The quality in the music is still high, but the moods are lame and Kate just seems tired. This one is only for the fans/ completist and therefore only deserves 2 stars. This is very disappointing after the beautiful Hounds of Love. The problem is that this wasn´t the end. Kate Bush would go on a release and even worse album in The Red Shoes. It´s a real pity that such an intelligent artist should end her career in such a way. I haven´t heard Aerial yet, but I really hope it´s better than this one.